Press
Press : “Time Traveler” von Ute Lemper: Grooviger Lounge-Sound
Publication : NDRKultur
By : Juliane Reil
Date : 25.05.2023
Ute Lempers Interpretationen von Marlene Dietrich sind legendär. Ihr neues Album “Time Traveler” ist tatsächlich eine Zeitreise.
Die Zeitreise führt bis ins Jahr 2000. Damals schrieb Ute Lemper zum ersten Mal eigene Songs. Aber sie gingen verloren. Bekannt blieb sie daher als Interpretin – von Kurt Weill und Bert Brecht, von Marlene Dietrich. Jetzt sind ihre frühen eigenen Songs aus der Versenkung aufgetaucht. Drei dieser Aufnahmen finden sich – leicht überarbeitet – auf “Time Traveler”, aber auch sieben neue Lieder wie das Titelstück.
Songs mit groovigem Lounge-Charakter
Die melancholisch-kraftvolle Stimme von Ute Lemper ist der Dreh- und Angelpunkt des neuen Albums. Teilweise schichtet sie sie zu Chören. Trotzdem hat die Musik Lounge-Charakter. Man stellt sie sich im Hintergrund einer Hotelbar vor, die Lemper – ganz Diva – vielleicht mit einem Glas in der Hand an die Bar gelehnt. Fast jedes Stück ist mit einem Groove unterlegt. Sogar wenn Lemper bei einem Stück stärker in Richtung Chanson geht.
Zehn Songs zwischen Jazz und Pop
Keine Frage, Ute Lemper ist eine ausdrucksstarke Sängerin. Und sie kennt ihre Rollen. Mal klingt sie sanft und verführerisch, dann wieder rau und hart. Sie wird begleitet von Schlagzeug, Bass, Gitarre, Klavier, manchmal von einem Saxophon. Und trotzdem ist es immer die Stimme, die den Songs etwas Besonderes verleiht. Zwischen Jazz und Pop changieren die zehn Songs.
Biografie zum 60. Geburtstag
Pünktlich zum 60. Geburtstag der Musikerin in diesem Jahr erscheint neben dem Album übrigens eine neue Biografie von Ute Lemper. “Die Zeitreisende” ist der Titel. Wie im Buch reflektiert Ute Lemper auch auf dem neuen Album über ihr Leben, wie sie sagt. Es seien persönliche Songs über Freude, Schmerz und Sehnsüchte.
Lemper als Singer-Songwriterin?
“Time Traveler” zeigt eine Ute Lemper, die wir vorher noch nicht kannten. Aber kommen wir ihr mit diesen Songs näher als mit ihren Interpretationen anderer? Aktuell ist Ute Lemper mit einem Liederabend zu Marlene Dietrich zu erleben. Und auch mit Musik von Astor Piazzolla. Dafür liebt sie ihr Publikum. Die Frage, die das Album “Time Traveler” stellt: Welche musikalische Richtung wird Ute Lemper als nächstes einschlagen? Ist das der Beginn von Ute Lemper, der Singer-Songwriterin?

Time Traveler
- Label:
- Jazzhaus Records
- Preis:
- 17,99 €
Press : Ute Lemper “Time Traveler”
Ute Lemper’s Time Traveler is one of the most fascinating songs we’ve covered in NeuFutur. The track adopts influences from mid-1970s easy listening, funk, and soul performers all while furthering an absolutely inimitable set of vocals. There are multiple layers here that will continue to yield new twists and turns each time one queues up the song. This is an experience much more than a simple pop track. What is most beautiful about Lemper’s latest is that it can be enjoyed as the artist statement it is, or it can be purely understood as fitting in among the most radio-friendly efforts from the era. Time Traveler has something for everyone who tucks in.
Press : Ute Lemper “Time Traveler”
Publication: Neufutur
By: James McQuiston
Date: May 25, 2023
Ute Lemper’s Time Traveler is one of the most fascinating songs we’ve covered in NeuFutur. The track adopts influences from mid-1970s easy listening, funk, and soul performers all while furthering an absolutely inimitable set of vocals. There are multiple layers here that will continue to yield new twists and turns each time one queues up the song. This is an experience much more than a simple pop track. What is most beautiful about Lemper’s latest is that it can be enjoyed as the artist statement it is, or it can be purely understood as fitting in among the most radio-friendly efforts from the era. Time Traveler has something for everyone who tucks in.
Press : Singer Ute Lemper Talks Time Traveller & Using AI
Publication: Close-up Culture
By: JAMES PRESTRIDGE
Date: May 15, 2023
Iconic Chanteuse and dancer Ute Lemper joins us on Close-Up Culture to discuss her new album, Time Traveller.
Hi Ute, welcome to Close-Up Culture. I believe your journey to make your new album, Time Traveller, began some 23 years ago. What are your memories of writing this songs?
In the year 2000 I had just found new love with my partner Todd and started a new passage in life after a divorce and a few years in shows in the West End and on Broadway. I was touring with my album “Punishing Kiss” and was highly inspired to start writing songs myself. I was filled with ideas, lyrics, poetry and harmonies on my piano. Todd and I recorded the songs on a 16 track analog tape machine in his music studio in Chelsea. 2 years later we had switched to a protools set up and the old tapes disappeared for more than 20 years in the basement… until we discovered them again by coincidence.
Now a lifetime later, still together making and producing music, we had the old tapes carefully digitised and could not believe the originality of the old songs. By touching them up, partly re singing, partly keeping the youthful voice, blending old and new stories, laying a more contemporary sounding groove under it I suddenly found the inspiration to write music again.
The album shows a time warp, a wrinkle in time and a beautiful encounter with our younger selves, but at the end the new songs dominate as they express my more mature contemporary philosophy of life.
What was your journey like to make this album?
I wrote the new as much as the old songs on paper then at the piano, I play some keyboard and sing, then record a first version of the songs. After this core is identified we start producing, inviting musicians to play and programming some elements. I sing many harmony vocals , I love a wall of vocals, harmonised in a cool fashion. I learned to be a protools engineer and can execute edits and mixes myself and I love creating the work from scratch to a perfection. But the emotion of the track rules at the end.
What kind of experience can audiences expect from Time Traveller?
It is a mature adult contemporary poetic journey in a contemporary sound picture. The songs are sung intimately but also express great joy of life in accordance with beautiful thoughts about the quickly passing time.
I understand the opening title track is accompanied by a cutting edge video that uses AI. What can you reveal about this?
I asked a great team in Berlin to experiment with newest technology, so you see me in different ages walking through a hundred years of history in time.
What are your hopes for the album and the impact it has on audiences?
I hope to show that making music and creating new even cutting edge creations continues also for us older generations. We can still come up with something wonderful that can influence the younger generations and my attempt was to build a bridge from yesterday into tomorrow. The songs have a certain sensitivity that speaks of a lived life.
Click here to read article on Close-up Culture site.